Bedford footballer shows his snappy side!

Footballer Scott Thomas, originally from Bedford is preparing to graduate from Middlesex University with a BA Photography degree next week.

The St Albans City midfielder has had his work showcased in an exhibition at the Old Truman Brewery in east London as he zooms in on a potential career after he hangs up his boots.

Scott joined St Albans City from Boreham Wood FC and focused his final year photography project around a community in Wales.

“The project is based on my curiosity around alternative living and it’s something I’ve been interested in for the last couple of years. It’s developed into looking into communities that are very different in the way they live their own lives,” he said.

“The community I chose was focused in Wales. The reason why I chose somewhere really far away was because it made me absorb myself in their way of living. I travelled to Wales, stayed in the community for a few days and took photographs – to get to know that way of living.

“It really helped with the photography because it made it more of an intimate experience. It was more an observation of living rather than me going there to shoot in a descriptive project. That was only possible when I was living among that community and experiencing it.”

Speaking about the exhibition of his work and his experience at Middlesex, Scott said: “To be able to have these pictures on the wall and be able to ignite some conversation about how people actually choose to live their lives, it’s nice to be able to talk about how the opportunity of living is different.

“The support you have at university helps you to experiment and dig deeper into a project and the fact that I could come back after a few weeks and get feedback on that work helped me reflect on my own vision of how the project was going.

“It helped to have that support behind you so you could dig a bit deeper.

“Being at university allows you to put all your time into a project. Having the time to grow as a photographer and an artist, you start to notice different things. It’s really interesting to look back at the photos you started with to the images I’m able to show on the wall now.

On a possible career in photography after from football, Scott said: “I’m looking into picture editor roles because that’s where my fascination in photography started - looking at images and photographs and moving forward, that’s the direction I’ll be heading towards.

“The course has definitely helped me recognise what I want to get out of life moving forward.”